


Manners Shmanners

by cornerandchair



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Post-Stolen Century, Very Pre-Here Be Gerblins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 17:17:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10881378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cornerandchair/pseuds/cornerandchair
Summary: Magnus, unsure of what to do with his sudden years of free time, gets help from his friend Jack to get a Job in the bustling city of Raven's Roost.He gets one with Steven Waxmen at his shop, The Hammer and Tongs. Over the next few years... things change.Magnus falls in love, Steven passes along an heirloom, Julia forgets her manners.





	Manners Shmanners

Magnus gently tugs at his new shirt. He isn’t uncomfortable, per se, but after sending 100 years in the same IPRE uniform, a change as drastic as the more casual clothes Jack had lent him was… welcome but weird.

Jack was his first real friend on this new world. And little June, his daughter, was something truly special.

It’s thanks to Jack that Magnus is on his way to a new job.

Jack had sent a letter to a friend of his in Raven’s Roost, and that friend had contacted their friends and eventually, Magnus was invited to study carpentry and blacksmithing under Steven Waxman.

He fixes his hair and walks into The Hammer and Tongs, ready to meet his new mentor.

The store was meticulous and surprisingly clean for what Magnus had first imagined it to look like. He didn’t see anyone inside, but the door was open…

“Uh… Hello?” He calls out.

“Hello!” He receives an enthusiastic and hearty response. “I’ll be out in just a moment! Finishing up a commission job!”

He hears the loud hiss of water on metal, followed by strong thumps of a hammer.

Magnus tugs on the shirt again. He isn’t used to this. He misses the other IPRE members. But he needs to do something. He wants to start a life here on Faerun, now that it’s safe from The Hunger.

Eventually a man came out from the back of the shop. His hair is just a little grey, and he matches Magnus in height and build. Magnus gets the feeling that Steven is a very good man. “Hello!” He says again. “What can I do for you?”

Magnus steps forward and holds out his hand. “I’m Magnus Burnsides. You invi-”

“Magnus Burnsides!” Suddenly Steven takes his hand, the already wide smile on his face getting wider. “Well I’ll be damned! Jack’s description really doesn’t do you justice!” He laughs. “Welcome to The Hammer and Tongs!” He pulls Magnus into a hug.

“Oh! Well, uh. Thank you, sir!”

“Sir? No, no! Just Steven!” He steps back and wipes his forehead. “If you’re going to be my assistant and apprentice I want you to treat me like you would treat your family.”

“I- Sure! I can do that, Steven.” Magnus feels a smile of his own starting to spread on his face.

Steven walks away for a moment. “I imagine you’re still getting settled in to Raven’s Roost, so I won’t make you work too much today.”

Everything about his first day helps him relax. Steven is a gentle man that Magnus feels like he could strive to be more like.

He gets more and more relaxed, the atmosphere in The Hammer and Tongs is wildly different from what he imagined. And he thanks Pan for it.

The day draws to a close. Magnus is about to lock up.

The bell hanging over the entryway into The Hammer and Tong rings.

And in walks the most beautiful woman Magnus has _ever_ seen.

“Julia!” Steven shouts from the back. “How were the puppies?”

She smiles, not really seeing Magnus. Her smile makes him feel like he's being brought back to life. That first fresh breath after so long of floating in that Plane’s Astral Plane.

He almost checks for his black eye.

“Oh, Same as alwa-” She pauses, catching Magnus’s stare. “Oh! You must be Magnus Burnsides!” She walks over and holds out her hand. “I’m Julia, Steven’s daughter.”

Magnus’s mind goes blank. He can think of all the advice he’s given to Barry about interacting with Lup. He knows he should say something, but his brain. Won’t. _Work._

She laughs and gently takes his hand, “Not much of a talker, are you?”

Her voice is soft, but carries a sort of authority to it. The palms of her hands are rough and he can feel some calluses on her fingertips. She probably helped her father here.

“I- uh… Uh…”

She chuckles. “Well the help will be nice.”

Julia moves passed him.

He gulps.

Taako and Lup were both ethereally beautiful with their elvish charms… But Julia… Julia was like he was looking at a goddess.

He turns and watches her vanish into the workshop. Then he leaves to go to his apartment for the night.

Over the next few months he alternates working with Steven and Julia when she’s free. Steven teaches him the broader details of carpentry and metalworking, Julia teaches him the fine details.

Steven teaches him like a father. A strong hand on his back, leading him in the right direction, stopping him when he’s wrong and chastising him if he messes up to badly.

Julia takes a different approach. She lets him make his mistakes, and then shows him where he made it, and lets him fix it on his own. He finds that he loves listening to her. He loves the way her eyes sparkle like hot metal when she talks about what she loves.

He loves the way she looks when she comes back from volunteering at the Raven’s Roost dog shelter. How sometimes the dog fur makes her sneeze, but she swears by how cute the dogs are.

He loves the way she starts taking him places in Raven’s Roost after six months. After he finally learns how to get his words to work around her.

At a traveling show she brought him to he discovers something else.

“Look!” She taps his arm, not knowing he’d been watching her the whole time. “He just used Prestidigitation to turn that head of lettuce into basil! And all those garlic cloves…” She has the widest smile on her face. Her hair is being blown about by the breeze.

He loves her.

“Maybe I should get that chef’s recipe… Do you think Dad would like that?” She looks up at him.

He freezes. “Uh… Yeah!” His head snaps forward.

Magnus watches the fair haired elven wizard. He was incredibly beautiful, Magnus couldn’t deny that…  
He glances back at Julia.  
But this cook has nothing on her…

As they’re eating the free samples of the 30 Garlic Clove Chicken that the cook had prepared for them, Magnus takes in a deep breath.

He’s going to ask Julia if she would go out with him in a more date like setting… He wants to court her…

What he says however is: “Julia, would you- uh… could you-? Hm… Could you help me become more… charming?” He feels his face heat up. “I mean, Charming isn’t exactly the word I meant- I meant something more like-”

She places a hand on his arm, “Magnus, it’s okay. Of course I’ll help.” She winks at him.

His heart does flips in his chest.

She teaches him how to obtain a certain rustic charm, and she teaches with patience. But she rubs off on him.

He becomes more gentle, and people start to treat him with a sort of rustic hospitality he didn’t get before.

And he knows it’s thanks to Julia.

It’s now some time later. Magnus and Steven are alone in the workshop. Magnus and Julia have been courting for a few months.

“Steven.” Magnus rakes a hand through his hair, he needs to ask. “I… was wondering if you would let me… take Julia’s hand in marriage.”

Steven looks back at him, then laughs. “Magnus! You don’t have to ask me. Julia’s hand is Julia’s to give.” He claps Magnus on the back. “But, between you and me… I think you’ve got good chances of her saying yes.”

Magnus’s face heats up hotter than the forge.

“And I’ve got a little something for you.” Steven opens a drawer in his craftsman’s table and pulls out a little box. “I figured this might happen soon, so I’ve had this ready.” He holds it out to Magnus. “It was the one I gave to Julia’s mother. I want you to have it.”

He takes the box. “Steven…” With a careful hand he opens it, and reveals a carved wooden ring with an ornate flower on top. “Thank you…”

Magnus keeps the box on him at all times. He waits for the perfect moment. And he finds it.

Julia is teaching him about sending proper thank you letters.

“For instance Governor Kalen doesn’t send thank you letters for… Well, just about anything; and if he weren’t so powerful people would find that _really_ rude.”

“Mhm.” He carefully removes the box from his pocket. “Julia, I have a question.”

“Yes, Magnus?” She smiles at him.

He holds out the box, “If- uh… If someone were to propose… Would they send a-”

Suddenly Julia’s kissing him, her small body slams against his and her arms wrap around his neck.

She breaks it a moment later. “Magnus, I thought you’d never ask!”

He laughs as joy starts overflowing his system. “I- Well… Julia, you interrupted me while I was talking.” He takes the ring out of the box and gently takes her hand in his. “That’s pretty rude.”

Tears start to form in the corners of her eyes as she sees him slip her mother’s ring on her finger. “Oh…” She smiles that beautiful smile. “Manners shmanners…”

He laughs. “Manners shmanners…” He kisses Julia's nose. “I get it.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't listened to Travis and Teresa's Podcast Shmanners you are missing out!  
> I love listening to them talk and they're just... so friggin' cute.


End file.
